Extortionists at work

By Joy, Dhaka
23 May 2004, 18:00 PM
This is in response to the letter "Extortionists at work" by Truly Terrified of Dhaka (19.5.2004)

I have a friend whose family is also going through the same kind of telephonic threats from 'agents' of different "well-known" and listed criminals demanding 'protection money'. Her father is a famous academician and that's seems to be the problem for them. They have paid handsome amount of money to three different 'agent's claiming to have links with three different "Boro Bhai". They preferred to pay the money without authenticating their claim and of course never informed the police to avoid unnecessary hassle. Surprisingly, the call hasn't come to end. New "Boro Bhai-s" are surfacing almost every week.

I fully agree with the writer that Operation Clean Heart was a heavenly blessing for us. For the first time in our life we felt a rare sense of security.

I think there are a lot many who will agree with us. It is true there were some unfortunate incidents. But life was a lot better.

The self-styled civil society and the so called torch bearers of humanity were heart broken at the short respite. Now that the days of chopped up bodies are back, our 'civil' citizens ( many of whom have murky backgrounds ) seem to be quite happy to restore the 'normal' course of life.

There are many who will welcome another operation clean heart . But our self-styled intellectuals will do their best to foil it.